Total 3apps on F-Droid for now
net.thunderbird.android (stable)net.thunderbird.android.beta (beta)com.fsck.k9 (old one now turned to beta)It’ll be bit confusing for users. Need some clarification from F-Droid side on TWIF like why they changed K-9 to beta as well and if/when they plan to sunset this old appid.
It is confusing. My good old K9 suddenly wants to update to Thunderbird beta? Why beta? Did anything else change?
The description doesn’t even mention K9?
com.fsck.k9).net.thunderbird.android) is a new app (from the user’s perspective; technical details don’t matter in this context).net.thunderbird.android.beta) is a “new app”. Having separate apps for stable and beta makes things easier for us. And it allows users to have both beta and stable installed at the same time.I see the problem now. It looks like the build infrastructure messed up releasing K-9 Mail and the app description for Thunderbird was used instead.
Will the issue be fixed? I just lost all my old messages, some of which are not on any server as I used POP3 in the past. Thunderbird allows me to import settings from K9mail so I have some hope my messages are still somewhere on my device.
There’s no app issue, thatll we know of, just a description/name one.
For any other issue please report it to them directly.
Thunderbird and K-9 Mail are relatively straight forward to build, it’s mostly a plain old Android project. Gradle assemble, and you’re off to the races.
Firefox on the other hand is a huge pile of stuff: Android/Java, C++, Rust. That’s intricate to build, evem if you wouldn’t need to patch out stuff for FOSS reasons.
Just compare the build scripts:
So should I install Thunderbird Version 8.0 (39009) which doesn’t appear to be a beta or should I install Version 8.0b5 (39010) which appears to be a beta?
Just checked your profile, if your mission is to spread this FUD only then please do that on other forums or at your thread. The F-Droid security topic is irrelevant to this specific thread.
The recommendation doesn’t work on this forum where users already prefer F-Droid according to their own threat-model.
K9mail is no longer listed on F-Droid, where can I get a copy of the last F-Droid build of it?
@shuvashish76
Don’t be so angry at different opinions. I accept yours as well.
The headline of this topic reads “K-9 to Thunderbird update” and I have outlined how I would recommend to transition from K-9 to Thunderbird. I think it is the safest option. Even though @thore rightly pointed out that the build script of Thunderbird is much easier for now, one should expect that Mozilla will continue to add new features to Thunderbird and this could include non-free components. Then we will have the same issue. So if you choose Thunderbird from F-Droid main channel, be very careful and check regularity if the version offered is the most recent one. If not, take immediate action. No blame to F-Droid, but I think it is a fair point to mention in a thread that could be visited by thousands who just click the title of this thread and hope they’ll find information about how to transition. Anyone here can post a different opinion and that’s fine.
See the above message
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.fsck.k9/ (just metadata changed, old appid is there)
Nothing is certain but we’ll see what to do if/when that happens.
For future reference the official sources are mentioned at Download — Thunderbird
Hey cketti,
do I understand you correctly that K-9 is supposed to continue alongside Thunderbird? If so, will it be basically Thunderbird just with a different icon and name or will it be an actual separate app with code differences, like lack of telemetry? (Regardless of opt-in / opt-out that might come to Thunderbird later.)
It seems that K9-mail is, and always has been, an Android clone of Thunderbird.
It’s certainly something I’d never realised nor, it seems, have any of the other contributors to this thread.
Conclusion: when the change comes simply install Thunderbird from F-Droid, it’s the same app!
Having read to the end it seems K9 Mail will continue but will be the same code as Thunderbird for Android. So people like me, who like the robot dog, can stick with it.
By accident I found out that K9mail is still installed on my device even though it is no longer in my app list.
To accessy old mails I can open it only through F-Droid, typing “K9mail” in the search bar and selecting the only result that comes up, called “Thunderbird Beta for Testers”. It appears that this app is different from the “Thunderbird Beta for Testers” entry in the current F-Droid repository list, which points to 8.0b5 and shows as installable, whereas the installed version on my device appears to be k9mail 8.0 and can be uninstalled or opened in F-Droid but with the title “Thunderbird Beta for Testers”.
Can someone please fix this mess so that I get my installed K9mail app back in my app list?
Thanks in advance!
Do read all the posts above, this was just a mixup of titles.
Wat? K9 exists for decades, not related to Thunderbird.
Until two years ago: K-9 Mail joins the Thunderbird family
As with any merger, I would not bet on it. At one point maintaining yet another flavor would be extra work and they’ll decide to drop it, imho.
If this is a reply to my latest message: It’s not the title that bothers me, it’s the fact the app - whether it’s called K9mail or Thunderbird I don’t care - is no longer in my app list, and the only way to launch it is searching for it in F-Droid and opening it.